


It Might be Time

by Stan_Hoe



Category: The End Of The Fucking World (TV)
Genre: Alyssa's mother, F/M, Fluff and Angst, LGBTQ Themes, Multi, however she's called, kind of, sorry for being lazy and not looking her name up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-14
Updated: 2019-11-14
Packaged: 2021-01-30 12:48:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21428470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stan_Hoe/pseuds/Stan_Hoe
Summary: James and Alyssa adulting. That's it.
Relationships: Alyssa/James (The End of the Fucking World)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 98





	It Might be Time

**Author's Note:**

> I legit wrote this a few hours after i finished the second season, but here i am, posting it almost ten full days later. 
> 
> I don't think it's greatly edited but whatever. English isn't my first laguage either so be kind <3 
> 
> tittle is from It Might be Time from Tame Impala bc i'm a lazy fuck as of right now, but it's a great song so sorry, not sorry. 
> 
> I don't own any character.

They run away again, and this time for good. 

Maybe it was their fucked up personalities that needed to rebel against something to feel at ease, at least in Alyssa’s case. James was happy to indulge her. Alyssa was the last person on earth he cared about and he would do unimaginable things just to stay by her side.

Alyssa’s aunt was great, if they were being honest. Her mother and foster half-cousin weren’t, nor was her job in a place she had almost gotten shot at, and definitely not the hateful looks she got from Todd’s family every time she wandered down town. The fact that said town was almost as small as her ex-husband’s brain didn’t help.

And yes, Alyssa owed her mother a lot of money, but who said that she wouldn’t pay her back? She would. She just wouldn’t put up with her in the meantime. She couldn’t handle her disapproving glances and sad eyes when she saw her insane daughter, or even her obvious dislike to James. So, she took a handful of cash and told James to drive until they ran out of gas. 

James didn’t question her. He actually enjoyed whenever they drove around like the old times, when they had just met and were living life to the fullest. They had made a lot of mistakes back then, but he couldn’t help but remember those ridiculously weird days with fondness. 

They started from scratch in a new town, far away from their old lives and where nobody could recognize them. It was nice to pretend that they were a normal young couple that didn’t have to carry with the weight of their decisions. 

“Alyssa, that boy has corrupted you for the last time,” her mother hissed at her when she finally had the courage to pick up a payphone. 

“No,” she gritted her teeth. “He hasn’t done shit. Don’t look for me, I’m not coming back.”

Her mother sobbed quietly. Alyssa wondered, not for the first time in her life, if she was as mouthy as she was because of how silent her mother was. 

It used to be obvious how tired her mother seemed to be every time she opened her mouth, or when her disdains to certain things was written in her face. Her mother was great at schooling her face and keeping her thoughts to herself, like a perfect trophy wife. 

It became clear to her that mouthy was always better than submissive, even if that brought her a lot of troubles. 

“What about me? Your siblings?” she cried softly.

She huffed, annoyed. “I won’t ever be the kid you wanted,” she said, trying hard to ignore the sobs on the other side of the line. “I don’t want a perfect _fucking_ husband or a cute little family, so let’s stop pretending we can see past our differences,” she snapped.

Her mother took a sharp breath of air. “That James boy is--”

“A murderer,” she cut in. “A dumbass kid that put his hand into a fryer when he was younger. Fucked in the head.”

Alyssa had long lost her worries about the man she loved. James wasn’t what you would call the _perfect_ man, but he was real, and Alyssa loved that she could see past his damages and admit that she wouldn’t mind spending her life with the stupid fuck. 

Her mother would never accept such thing. 

The line was silent for a few seconds. “Yes,” her mother finally whispered, her voice firm. “He is dangerous, Alyssa.”

She shook her head before realizing her mother couldn’t see her. “He really isn’t. He’s helped me through a lot of shit.”

“That he dragged you into!” she stressed. 

“That I got us into,” she corrected. She had been the one to push him to run away and to stay in someone else’s house. He wasn’t a saint, but she had kind of started that mess herself. “I’m not a great person, mum. I don’t _want_ to be the greatest person alive, and James is cool with that,” Her mother groaned. 

“But Alyssa--”

“I do things to piss people off, mum,” she sighed. “I fucked off when I was seventeen because of that. I got married young because I _hoped_ someone would get pissed at me, and now, I may be running away to piss you off again. I don’t fucking know,” she admitted. 

“Please,” her mother begged. 

“What I do know,” she insisted, pointedly ignoring her mother’s pleas. “Is that there’s something wrong with me. There’s something wrong with James and I’m sure there’s something wrong with you. The difference is that James’s trying to help and you aren’t.”

Her mother let out a heavy sob. “All I wanted for you was to have a normal life,” she cried.

“I have one, though,” she whispered back, feeling hot tears rolling down her cheeks. “It just isn’t what you pictured.”

It made everything worse, somehow, how disappointed her mother would look at her, like she had thrown her life down the drain the moment she fled from her wedding reception. She was at fault, obviously, for trying to marry someone that she knew her mother would approve of, but it didn’t help her mother’s constant complains and sad marveling of what could’ve been. She didn’t like the _what ifs’_, she wanted to move on, get some help and try to be somewhat happy with James, which was exactly what her mother refused to help her through.

_And it hurts like hell_, she thought. 

“Alyssa, please come back,” her mother begged once again, tired.

She felt her chin trembling.

“No,” she said, as firm as she could. “I’ll pay back that dumb fucking wedding and then I’ll see if I want you back in my life. Sorry.”

She cried the entire night between James’s arms. It felt different from the embraces they shared back when they had first run away. Now, James didn’t have qualms about snuggling her close to his body, desperate to hug her sadness away, kissing her forehead softly and whispering nonsense against her hair. Alyssa liked this change more than she was willing to admit. 

James was astonished by how strong Alyssa was. Even if either of his parents were alive, he didn’t think he would have the strength of cutting them off. Of course, their situations were fairly different, so much that he was certain Alyssa had made the right call. For better or for worse, Alyssa’s mother wasn’t helping her improve her already damaged mental health, and as difficult as it seemed, cutting people off someone’s life sometimes was crucial to move on. 

He hated that Alyssa had to cut off both her parents at such a young age. It was unfair, but then again, him being an orphan at twenty-years-old didn’t feel exactly fair either.

They got shitty jobs and went to night school to get their degrees before applying to college. They both got a much needed mental help, and while it took years of therapy and a handful of psychologists trying to make sense of their brains, they managed to get to a point where things were, at the very least, stable.

They laughed a lot more, and tried to talk with honesty, albeit with some sarcasm and their usual banters because serious talks were more difficult on them than one would think. After all, they were quite shit at processing emotions. 

They got married young, because James didn’t really mind and because Alyssa was obsessed with seeing people’s scandalized reactions when she told them she had been married twice before turning twenty-one. There was beauty in chaos, James supposed. After all, Alyssa was the embodiment of it and he loved every molecule of her being.

James managed to get a medical degree, to Alyssa’s utter surprise and pride. All the anatomical knowledge he had acquired while butchering animals _had_ to do for something. 

Alyssa ended up being a therapist for troubled kids. She had been, and still kind of was, _troubled_, so she figured she could try to help people that felt as miserable as she used to feel as a teenager. Most of the time, her patients were luckier than she was. Not many of them had to deal with PTSD from both an assault and a murder. 

James couldn’t have been prouder of how far she had come. 

They even managed to form a little circle of friend that were almost as damaged as they were. Alyssa liked real people, the kind that didn’t shy away from their problems, even if that made them slightly troublesome. James, again, couldn’t give less of a fuck who she –_they_– befriended as long as he could see Alyssa smile. 

They were nearing their thirties when they thought _fuck it_ and decided to adopt. James had been quickly to realize that they were universally drawn to damaged humans. It wasn’t bad, it just was the way things were. Sometimes it meant that their personalities would crash and cause more pain than anything, and for that he was scared.

Luckily, they ended up with a five-years-old, bipolar little girl that glared her way inside their hearts. Granted, she could be a handful every now and then, but which kid wasn’t? 

They adored her. 

They took it upon themselves to be better parents than the ones they had. They weren’t, by any means, perfect, but they doted her with a love they didn’t knew they had and lots of support. They assured her that they would have her back on everything she wanted to be except for being a judge or a policewoman. They didn’t have good experiences with those. 

It was weird how seamless Kat fitted with them. James couldn’t help but picture her as Wednesday Addams, kind of grim and with a dark sense of humor for such a little kid, but with bright green eyes and strawberry blonde hair. It was a funny combination; the looks of an angel with a troubled mind. 

Alyssa, on her part, thought her not to take shit from anyone. It came to bite her in the ass not even a year later, when Kat started to snap back to whoever that pissed her off, meaning her fights with Alyssa were frequent for a few months in their household. James would worry for them, for how vicious their arguments would get, but then he would catch Alyssa apologizing to their daughter, reminding her that _mommy can be a fucking asshole sometimes_. Kat would hug her and say _me too. Sorry for being a dick_ and Alyssa would smile the brightest and hug her even more fiercely.

Alyssa’s eyes gleamed every time the little girl cursed. Kat would even get an appreciative smile if she did it in front of elderly people, who would gape at her and shake their heads at Alyssa and James. 

They were thirty-two when Alyssa decided to contact her mother again. It had been over ten years, but she had barely felt the absence of a parental figure. Maybe that was what really saddened her, especially as she looked at her sleeping daughter. She hoped she was doing a good enough job at parenting, at least for her child to give a fuck about her existence. 

Alyssa’s mother was the same fashionable, quiet, slightly air-headed woman they had left behind so many years ago. She just was older, but Alyssa had to admit her mother really knew how to maintain her skin at her age. 

Then there were the twins that had grown without knowing anything about their bigger sister’s whereabouts. She wasn’t going to lie and say that she had missed them because she had never cared about them even when they were babies. She did, however, felt a little guilty knowing she hadn’t spared a second thought on them and their well-being.

Of course, it wasn’t difficult to type her name in google and take note of the mistakes she had made when she was seventeen, so her siblings _did_ know her. Well, they knew about her bad decisions, which wasn’t great. Alyssa refused to feel embarrassed for what she did in her teenage years, and instead rejoiced in the troubles she had caused, but when her sister raised a brow at James and just asked “The killer?” Alyssa didn’t felt the need to laugh as she would’ve in any other situation. 

Instead, she shrugged.

James waved at her sister, clearly uncomfortable. Alyssa wondered if making people uncomfortable was a family trait. 

Her mother seemed excited about their daughter at the beginning. Then, she realized she wasn’t a very friendly kid, nor a stupid one. Every time she tried to get her to smile or laugh at some dumb joke, Kat would send a pleading look at either of her parents, like it mentally pained her to be treated like a bimbo. It got to a point where she slid out of James’s lap, took a kid’s book from her backpack and retreated to read outside. 

Seeing the twins further proved that Alyssa had made the right call when she cut ties with her mother. Two out of three kids were fucked, apparently. The only one who seemed socially acceptable was her brother, with his forced smile and sad eyes. Alyssa didn’t have to be a genius to know that her mother’s ideals hadn’t been greatly accepted by him.

She was sure her mother expected him to get married to a nice woman that would come over and drink wine with her as they watched their giggling kids. Her brother, however, was head over heels for the boy sitting right next to him, his _best friend_ as her mother had introduced him with a desperate glance sent their way. Still, her brother seemed like a good guy, someone that was bound to be successful somehow. She couldn’t understand why her mother was dead set on talking about this one bubbly, girly classmate that had come for tutoring sessions once a few months ago, saying over and over that Will should’ve asked her out when he had the chance. 

Her sister, on the other hand, was boy crazy, but by the weird looking bruises in her inner arm, she wasn’t sure that she was better off. If anything, it just pointed to her that her little sister was doing some hard drugs she couldn’t even name. She hoped she was wrong, or at least that her mother was as worried about her as she seemed to be about her son’s love interest. 

For the first time in her life, she felt like she was doing a good job at parenting, no doubts about it. 

She didn’t feel good acquiring that knowledge by seeing her mother’s poor attempt at raising her siblings.

“So, what happened since I left?” Alyssa asked that evening, sipping at her tea quietly, after her sister had fled with a dumb looking boy in a motorcycle. 

“Well, Will’s having another tutoring session with that cute classmate of hers next week,” she gushed excitedly. Her brother forced another smile, hiding a sigh with a chuckle.

Alyssa frowned just as her daughter came running back inside. She tugged at James’s jacket and he handed it to her without missing a beat. 

“Got cold?” he asked, mindlessly zipping the jacket. 

Kat shuddered slightly. “Like a motherfucker,” she confirmed. 

Alyssa’s mother gasped. “That’s not language for a little lady,” she scolded in a hiss. 

Kat stared blankly at her and Alyssa snickered quietly. “I’m not a fucking lady,” she snapped with clenched fists. 

Alyssa reached for her arm and squeezed it softly, hoping to calm her daughter down. She unclenched her little hands, so Alyssa counted it as a win. 

She remembered her daughter’s earlier ramblings, back when they had been on the open road, and raised a brow at her. 

“Kat, can you tell grandma about that girl from school you met last week?” she asked with a hidden smirk. 

James sent her a questioning glance her way but didn’t say anything. 

Kat shrugged. “She’s got a cute accent and likes to read. I really like her,” she admitted with a shy whisper.

“She sounds nice,” James encouraged silently with an endearing smile. 

Alyssa nodded and pointed to her half-brother. “Did you know that uncle Will here is dating his best friend?” 

She wasn’t completely sure that was the case, but it really didn’t matter to her when her daughter’s eyes lit up like a Christmas tree as she turned to her. 

“Like you and dad?” she asked, excited.

Alyssa let out a giggle as she nodded. “Yeah.”

Kat looked back and forth between her parents with a frown. “Does that mean I have to be Marina’s best friend then?”

Alyssa shrugged. “I don’t know. What do you think, Will?”

Her brother got red faced. “I- maybe?”

“I don’t think that’s very necessary,” James cut in. Kat turned to him, her big, curious eyes pulling a smile from his lips. “But it definitely is a very good thing to be friends with whoever you like.”

“Why?” she asked with a little tilt of her head. 

James smiled at Alyssa quickly before turning back to Kat. “Trust,” he simply answered. 

Alyssa smiled softly at him. 

Kat nodded, deep in thought. “I think I’m gonna invite her over next week,” she marveled out loud. 

James and Alyssa chuckled at her. Then, he messed her hair slightly. “Good thinking, kiddo.”

She glared at her father for a second for touching her hair. Then, she rolled her eyes like it annoyed her endlessly, pressed a quick kiss in both their cheeks and ran back outside. 

They laughed quietly at her daughter’s antics before turning back to face the people around them. Alyssa’s mother was aghast. She had to force back the hysterical laugh that threatened to barge out of her mouth. 

“Alyssa,” she hissed with big, wide eyes. “You can’t teach her that,” she scolded.

She quirked her lips, pretending obliviousness. “What?”

Her mother motioned to the window, where her daughter could be seen curled under a tree, silently reading. “It isn’t right for her to think that she likes a _girl_,” she hissed again. 

Alyssa frowned at her. “Why?”

“She-,” her mother looked between Alyssa and James, scandalized. “Is just a kid!”

“You have pictures if me kissing the boy next door when I was three,” she pointed out. 

Her mother shook her head. “That’s different.”

“How?” James inquired, blank-faced.

At her mother loss of words, Alyssa rolled her eyes at her. “Not everybody is straight, mum.”

“But you’re going to confuse her,” she insisted. 

“Kat will figure things out on her own,” James assured Alyssa’s mother. 

_And, unlike you, we will support her_, he bitterly thought as he looked at Alyssa’s brother and his _best friend_, both completely awed at the argument in front of them. 

Her mother tightened her lips, finally angry. “Like you did?” she asked with disdain. 

Alyssa raised her brows at her, incredulous. As if she had a perfect life herself.

“Yeah. Like we did. If you haven’t noticed, we’ve got a very nice life as of now,” she snapped.

Her mother slammed her hand against the table. “With a psycho killer,” she yelled in a whisper. 

“Fuck _off_ with that,” Alyssa yelled back. “James murdered a serial killer that tried to rape me, mum, there’s worse things he could’ve done.”

“What the _fuck_—,” Will’s _best friend_ whispered. 

“He’s a maniac—,” Alyssa’s mother hissed once again. 

“He’s my family,” she cut in and jumped to her feet, enraged. “C’mon, James. We’re leaving.”

She stormed off. 

James stood slowly, gathering both their stuff as Alyssa mother glared at him. “Great meeting you, Will,” he said to Alyssa’s brother, unfazed. He got an amused tip of his head. Then, he walked up to the door before giving him one last smile. “Good luck in college.”

Her mother was still fuming when he stepped out of the house and marched to their car, where Alyssa and Kat were already seated, both of them seeming annoyed. James didn’t say anything as he started the engine and drove away unhurried, like nothing had happened. Maybe that would calm both his wife and daughter, but the chances were slim. 

“Grandma’s kind of a bitch,” Kat muttered as they drove away. 

Alyssa sighed heavily and nodded, looking very much pissed. “Good thing we’re not seeing her ever again,” she decided. 

Kat shrugged, unbothered. “Okay.”

At times like that, Alyssa was awed with how much Kat reminded her of a younger, quieter James. He wasn’t talkative now either, but she didn’t have to pry conversations from him either. Kat was a lot like him in that way.

Her husband placed a hand over hers and tugged it to his lips, kissing her knuckles sweetly.

“You don’t need her,” he assured her. 

Alyssa turned to him. His eyes were on the road but she could see the bags under his eyes and a few wrinkles he didn’t have back when they were seventeen. They had sat in this exact same position for many years, him behind the steering wheel and her admiring his kind, albeit grim, face, yet it was then that she realized how many years they had spent together, how utterly grateful she still felt for his presence. 

She was. _Grateful_. Very much so. He had been a great companion through life, an excellent husband and a loving father over the years they had shared. It was easy, however, to forget just how much he did for her, like the way he had her back without a single question or his constant silent support. She had never wanted him to amend her wrongs or try to defend her. Those were things she could and had to handle on her own. 

James knew better, as always. She needed to know that she wasn’t alone, that she wasn’t too damaged to be loved. James provided her with exactly what she needed without having to voice it out loud because he knew her better than she knew herself sometimes. He was her right hand, someone that wouldn’t stop her from insulting people or that would try to apologize on her behalf. He was the one that would have her back in whatever trouble she got in and would help her if he could.

And as she appreciated him ever so silently in her mind, she thought that she had discovered a whole new level of love for that dumbass husband of hers. 

She smiled fondly at him. “I know,” she said. 

_I’ve got you instead_, she thought. 

They didn’t contact no one from their past again.

**Author's Note:**

> So, i tried to keep everyone in character but i don't think i achieved it quite well. It's hard, y'all. 
> 
> I don't know how Alyssa's mother will evolve over the years and who really knows if she'll be this big of an asshole, but idk, i felt like writing some supportive Alyssa and James doing parenting great and what better way than to overly compare it with very bad parenting? also, I did Todd bad and i honestly believe he's a cute little dummy. in that note, Alyssa's mother isn't great, but i guess she did what she thought was better for her daughter. 
> 
> Sorry for the long rant.
> 
> Also, not to brag, but i'm from Chile and as i post this, half the country is burning down for social justice. That's it, just wanted y'all to know that my people really did that and i kind of love it.


End file.
